December 2024

IN THIS ISSUE

Elf On The Shelf Tweak
New Year's Resolutions
Family Event Recap

IMPORTANT DATES

January 2nd - First day back from Winter Break

January 16th - Family Night

January 20th- No School - Martin Luther King Day

January 21st - No School for Students

February 17th - Block Party

April 8th - Library Event

Message from Principal Schendel

Give the gift of your presence this holiday season!

I hope your holiday season is filled with opportunities to enjoy your little one with some one-on-one time, enjoying a few special moments talking and playing together. Please remember that the best present you can give your child is your presence. The holiday season can be filled with big changes in routines for children and extra stress for parents. A few tips for setting your child up for success include:

Prepare your child ahead of time for changes in routines and schedules. Too much time and children may forget or become anxious, but not enough warning and children are caught off-guard which can often increase behavior. You know your child best regarding how much lead time they will need. A little advanced notice on your part could prevent meltdowns, hurt/scared feelings, and lead to an overall more peaceful and enjoyable holiday experience for everyone.
Review expectations before you go somewhere new. Make sure you talk with your child about how you expect them to behave when they go visit a friend or relative’s house, go out for dinner, etc. Telling children what you want them to do vs. not do helps children. Children think in pictures and if you say don’t run, all they tend to picture in their head is running. Help them focus on what they should do such as: “At Grandma’s it will be important that we ask before touching things that do not belong to us and use inside voices.” Providing praise for meeting those expectations can go a long way as well! This could sound like “You asked Grandma to look at the sparkly bells on her table before you grabbed them to go play. That was respectful!”
Think from a child’s perspective and plan accordingly. Many holiday gatherings are not designed with your child in mind. When and what will your child eat? Is the eating and sleeping schedule significantly different than what your child is used to? What is available for your child to do that will be fun for them and be appropriate for the environment you are going to? Who will be there and does your child know them?

We look forward to welcoming your children back in the classroom on Thursday, January 2nd. They always come back with many fun stories about all of those special moments they have had while they have been away.

Sincerely,

Beth Schendel
Principal of Early Learning

“Our choice of where we put our attention teaches children what we value. If we focus on what children have done wrong, we will teach them to value judgment and problems. If we focus on what we want to have happen, we will teach respectfulness and solution-seeking” (Creating the School Family, Dr. Becky Bailey, p.251).

Using this powerful idea that “what you focus on you get more of” we are hoping that this holiday season Elf on the Shelf can be a powerful tool for behavior change in your home. There is an abundance of research that supports developing our power of attention to focus on behaviors we want to see from our children instead of those we don’t. At any given time, in classrooms and homes all over the world, there are children being helpful and some being hurtful. Which ones will get your elf’s attention? Where do you want to put your elf’s focus?

Allow your elf to be the vehicle that retrains your eyes to see the love and positivity that surrounds you. You can help the children in your care grow up seeing the glass as half full instead of half empty. We can also teach our children that when there is an oops, it is an opportunity to learn, focus on a solution, and find the beauty in the situation.

Here are a few ideas to shift your elf’s attention to the positive:

Create some family agreements. What do you value as a family? In our home we created some agreements as a team (including our children) and have the following family agreements: Be safe, be kind and stay calm, be helpful, be trustworthy. We talked about what it did and didn’t look like. We signed our agreements as a sign of commitment from each family member.
- 3-5 positively stated agreements that apply to everyone in the family at home, at school, at work, in the car, at grandma and grandpa’s will help you be successful!
Write your agreements down on a piece of paper or poster(adding pictures can be powerful for young children as they cannot yet read - take a picture of your child following the agreements and put that up as an easy and powerful example)!
Tell your children that your elf will be watching for the best in them. When your elf (or anyone else in the family) notices someone following the family agreements they will write that person’s name down and stick it up to the poster you made. Your children are typically amazing observers. They want to be noticed for doing these things and are usually quick to point out others following the agreements as well. Encourage them to add people’s names as well!! What a powerful visual reminder of all of the positive things happening in your family and home.
Have the Elf leave little notes that contain encouraging words and notices helpfulness: “You _____ (describe what the child did) so (describe how it contributed to others). That was helpful!

Examples:

You cleaned up the race cars so no one would fall. That was helpful!
You reminded your Mom to put on her seatbelt so she would be safe. That was helpful!
You raised your hand quietly so others can learn. That was helpful!

Here are some examples of our elf visiting and writing positive notes for our family after just one day we already had a few stickers up. Our kids had put them up as well! We can’t wait to see how this might look in your family too. :)

Set a New Year’s Resolution to See Your Kids with Loving Eyes

New Year’s celebrations traditionally bring with them the setting of resolutions - things you promise to do and/or not to do for the rest of or by the end of the new year. We encourage people to set commitments that say what you will do using the starter “I’m going to ____.” One of the most powerful commitments you can make is in how you choose to see your kids, and how you choose to let them know you see them.

Do you know how often research indicates children are told what they are doing correctly?

Less than 2% of the time!

Do you know how often research indicates children comply with adult requests?

80% of the time!

Why does it matter?

Research indicates that you can improve behavior by 80% just by pointing out what someone is doing correctly.

We hope you will join us in committing to noticing when your children are doing what they are supposed to and sharing with them that you notice when they are doing the right thing. The more specific you can get the better!

See examples below:

Instead of...	Try...
“Thanks honey!”	“You picked your clothes up and put them in the hamper. Wow. That was helpful!”
“Good job!”	“You worked so hard to make sure all of your toys ended up in the right bin.”

Family Event

We had so much fun connecting with our students and families around the skill of Composure and the importance of regulation for both adults and our kiddos. After a yummy family meal of pizza and salad, the kids went down to classrooms to practice their composure skills and build a breathing tool to take home. The adults got the luxury of learning child-free and walking away with ideas they could utilize beginning that night to support their own regulation and their child’s regulation.

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